HVK Archives: The relevance of Indian Ocean
The relevance of Indian Ocean - The Daily
M V Kamat
()
April 5, 1998
Title: The relevance of Indian Ocean
Author: M V Kamat
Publication: The Daily
Date: April 5, 1998
The author of this important work Kenneth McPherson, is Director
of the Indian Ocean Centre at Curtin University in Western
Australia. He claims that this volume evolved out of fifteen,
years of teaching undergraduate courses in South Asian and Indian
Ocean history and that and that in writing this book he has
benefited by the works of historians such as Holder furber,
Charles Boxer. Ashin Das Gupta, Tapan Raychaudhury, Om Prakash.
Michael Pearson, KN Chaudhuri S. Arasaratnam and Sanjay
Subrahmanyam.
There are over forty countries whose shores border the Indian
Ocean starting from South Africa in the West to Indonesia and
Australia in the East. How are they inter-related? Or are they
inter-related at all? When did the contacts begin and what is the
nature of their outcome? The Indian Ocean region is the home
ofthe worlds first urban civilisation and centre of the first
sophisticated commercial and maritime activities. The ocean has
been a great highway and source of food and raw materials.
Long before the Europeans discovered the Indian Ocean, Indian
seamen had been using it for trade and commerce. From India went
saints and savants to spread the Vedic and later the Buddhist -
Message to countries of' the East. Just as the Mediterranean
linked Europe with North Africa and the Levant, the Indian Ocean
served as a link between India and countries- as far away as
Cambodia and Japan. And yet, strange as it may seem, there has
been no satisfactory attempt to study the role of the Indian
Ocean.
As Prof. McPherson rightly states, there are marry histories' of
East Africa, the Middle East, South Asia. South East Asia and
Australia "but these have not been integrated into a regional
history based upon the human working of the Ocean Lane that has
been traversed time and again by our forgotten seamen'? Not only
was this Ocean used for trade and commerce, but it was also the
vehicle for the spread of three major religions of the world,
Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam.
The Indian Ocean peripheral countries, in the circumstances, are
subjects worthy of deep study and this in a small but meaningful
way is what Prof. McPherson has done. He bar divided the subject
in four neat chapters: The Early Maritime Trade of the Indian
Ocean Commercial Imperialism, The Age of Commerce (1450-1700) and
=46rom Commerce to Industrial Capitalism. Discussed are the
origins of maritime skills and trade. regional variations.
shipping technologies. the markets of the Middle East and South
Asia the impact of the Islamic and Chinese Empires the golden age
of indigenous trade, the discovery of Europe, the impact of
the Portuguese, the coming of others (British, Dutch, French) and
mariners, merchants and ports.
Not many may know but at one time there was a tremendous trade
between Bengal and countries of South East Asia. Indeed. Bengal
through ports such as Calcutta and Dhaka provided the main
cargoes for the China trade. With the assistance of indigenous
merchants and financiers South Asian textiles and opium were sold
in South East Asia primarily through silver and which were then
shipped to China to finance purchase of tea. Why tea? At what
point in time was tea-drinking turned into a fashion and then a
habit in Europe?
Then again. the eighteenth century was the golden age of' the
Bengal textile trade. with cargoes sent to all corners of the
Indian Ocean region and to Europe. From Britain Indian textiles
were despatched to America. How come. then. that the role was
reversed and India became the dumping ground of British textiles
from the mills of Manchester? That is a story by itself.
There are so many aspects to the Indian Ocean story that one
would need not one but several volumes to deal fully with it. How
did the British destroy Indian trade and choke Indian commerce
and suppress Indian ship-building technology?
After the British were firmly established in India, attempts by
Indian investors to establish an Indian owned steamship company
were regularly thwarted and that is a story in itself. And yet
there was always an intimate link between Indians and
foreigners. Prof. McPherson at one point makes a brief reference
to a Hindu Sindhi family which had been engaged in maritime trade
across the Arabian Sea for several generations and makes the
point that he growth of European colonies cannot be
simplistically dismissed as the triumph of European capitalism
Bind the destruction of indigenous economic enterprise but rather
based on ancient human and economic continuities. hat is a
highly questionable statement to make.
There is of course, no doubt that a human and economic continuity
always existed in intercountry trade among the Indian Peripheral
countries. According to Prof. McPherson in the 15 century there
were some 1,000 Hindu and Muslim Gujarati merchants resident in
Melaka while 1,000 to 2,000 were on the across the Bay of Bengal
at, any one time during the sailing season.
In addition to the Gujaratis there were also Chulia (Tamil
Muslim), Keling (Tamil Hindu), Bengali, Persian, Armenian and
Paris merchants travelling the same routes. By the early
sixteenth century Gujarati merchants were pre-eminent In the
trade networks of the Bay of Bengal and were taking a greater
share in the trade with East Africa and the Middle Fast. it is
mind-boggling. Fancy Gujaratis from West India going all the way
to Bengal An the East to set up business organisations that dealt
with both South East Asia and East Africa! It Is an amazing
tribute to their enterprise.
The Indian Ocean enabled so many distinct cultures to intermingle
and interact, sometimes violently sometimes peace fully The
nature of that interaction and the products that evolved
following that interaction would' make a fruitful study, How
would India the entire South Asian subcontinent - have, evolved
had there been no interaction first with the Portuguese and later
with the French (in a limited way). That is an excellent case for
speculation.
Prof. McPherson makes pointed reference to it but no doubt
because of constraints of-space does not go beyond, raising the
matter as when he notes that "at a more intrusive level. the
arrival of a combative. Christianity in the wake of the
Portuguese had a profound effect upon local religious practices
and loyalties." A profound effect? That is the understatement of
the year.
The India Ocean should be treated as an appetiser. It Is
tantalisingly brief. It raises more Issues than At sets out to
resolve. But for that very reason it is most welcome. It whets
one's appetite to read more on the subject And Isn't that what a
good book Is supposed to do?
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